The Fogarty International Center, part of the National Institutes of Health, today announced it will award $4.6 million over three years to expand its network of global health education programs to include 12 additional campuses in the United States, China and Mexico. The Framework Programs for Global Health aim to raise awareness of global health within the academic community and support development of new curricula and degree programs that cut across departments and schools to create a pipeline for the next generation of global health researchers.

"As the world becomes increasingly interconnected, there is a compelling need for novel, multidimensional approaches to global health research," said NIH Director Elias A. Zerhouni, M.D. "By removing the existing academic silos and working across disciplines, we can better leverage our knowledge and skills to tackle difficult global health challenges and save lives around the world."

Each site will receive approximately $400,000 over three years through the flexible program that encourages each institution to develop a structure and activities that best suit its existing strengths and research capabilities. The new awardees will join the existing network of 19 sites that have received Framework grants since the programís inception in 2005. Within these institutions, faculty from more than 17 different disciplines have participated including those from schools of medicine, public health, anthropology, law, engineering, environmental sciences, journalism, business and others.

Two foreign projects are receiving Framework awards. With its grant, Mexicoís National Institute of Public Health — together with eight academic partners in North and South America — will form a global health training consortium for the region focused on topics of critical importance such as infectious diseases, tobacco and nutrition. Since China faces significant reproductive health issues, Fudan University in Shanghai will create a teaching network to address the countryís persistently high rates of maternal and child mortality, reproductive tract infections and sexually transmitted diseases.

In the United States, Oregon Health and Science University will build on its strengths in environmental science, cancer and neuroscience while the University of Texas Medical Branch plans to leverage its expertise in telemedicine. Harvardís framework will join with partners in India, Tanzania and Brazil to address various aspects of nutrition and its impact on health — both under-nutrition and the emergence of obesity, diabetes and cardiovascular disease in developing countries.

Through its award, Northwestern University will offer its students public health study abroad programs, in collaboration with partner institutions in Mexico, China, South Africa, Uganda and France. Meanwhile, Tulane will expand its existing relationships with collaborating sites in Peru, Mexico, Argentina, Thailand, China and Mali.

Duke is planning to establish an interdisciplinary master's degree program in global health that will promote the sharing of foreign field sites among the network's members, leveraging existing relationships and fostering new research collaborations abroad. The University of Pittsburgh will integrate certificate programs from four participating schools — public health, medicine, public and international affairs and law — to prepare the next generation of scientists, physicians, policy makers and lawyers to tackle global health issues.

At Brown University, a global health program will be developed to offer students a set of foundation courses, intensive faculty mentoring and a foreign site experience. Ohio State Universityís program will include global health courses for college-preparatory students, a minor in global health for undergraduates and an interdisciplinary specialization for graduate students. Finally, the University of California, San Francisco will partner with colleagues at UC Berkeley to transform global health offerings in the Bay Area.

In addition to Fogarty, the new awards are being supported by NIH partners including the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering, the National Cancer Institute, and the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke.

Fogarty, the international component of the NIH, addresses global health challenges through innovative and collaborative research and training programs and supports and advances the NIH mission through international partnerships. For more information, visit: www.fic.nih.gov.

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) — The Nation's
Medical Research Agency — includes 27 Institutes and
Centers and is a component of the U.S. Department of Health and
Human Services. It is the primary federal agency for conducting
and supporting basic, clinical and translational medical research,
and it investigates the causes, treatments, and cures for both
common and rare diseases. For more information about NIH and
its programs, visit www.nih.gov.